City will host Chiefs in the MTN8 quarter-finals at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday looking to build on their 2-0 win over Rise and Shine in their league opener.
The new club's captain Manyama impressed in a 33-minute cameo off the bench on Tuesday, having barely featured in pre-season after breaking three toes last term.
"Lebo has been out with an injury and the whole of the pre-season," Tinkler said of the offensive midfielder, who snubbed a move to Chiefs in 2014 in favour of joining SuperSport United.
"He broke three meniscus about 28 weeks ago and his recovery has been slow since I have been at the club.
"So we had to be careful on how we handle him and fortunately we didn't get him in any activity that would create tackles or anything like that."
Tinkler added: "It was bit of a risk to be honest playing him as I did. I thought I could use him for 20 or 25 minutes but we ended up bringing him on with 36 minutes still to play.
"He came through unscathed which is good for us and now it will help him with preparation going to the game against Chiefs."